Talking to Canada

CTV stood by, but tweaked, its story yesterday, suggesting that an Obama aide had spoken not to the ambassador but to the consul in Chicago, and naming the aide, economist Austan Goolsbee.

Both Obama's campaign and the Canadian government continued to deny the substance of the conversation — the notion that Goolsbee was suggesting that Obama's tough talk on NAFTA wasn't entirely heartfelt.

But their blanket denials yesterday seem to have been based on the relative technicality that the conversation was with the consul, not the ambassador. I updated my post on the subject yesterday to include this quote from the embassy spokeman, Tristan Landry:

"Canada has diplomatic representatives posted in the U.S., including Chicago. These representatives are actively talking to decision makers, including those involved in all campaigns, about the whole range of Canada-U.S. issues. Our economic relationship and trade often come up in these meetings but in none of our conversations has any campaign adviser ever signaled that a candidate would say things that they didn't mean or that we should disregard," he said.

A spokesman for Obama, Bill Burton, wouldn't comment on whether Goolsbee spoke to the consul, but also denied the substance of the report.

"There was no one at any level of our campaign, at any point, anywhere, who said or otherwise implied Obama was backing away from his consistent position on trade," he said. Goolsbee didn't respond to an e-mail, and Burton wouldn't put him on the phone.

The funny thing about this story is that you'd hardly need to talk to senior campaign officials to get the impression that both Clinton's and Obama's newfound rage at NAFTA is rather insincere, though their (fairly modest) demands for better labor and environmental standards are not.

In fact, that's basically conventional wisdom, and something that almost everybody paying close attention to the issue — from David Leonhardt to Jonathan Tasini — has been muttering about since the Ohio primary began.

Something to note: Goolsbee is a well-known Chicago economist, not a full-time Obama staffer, and there's no evidence that he was tasked by the campaign to communicate some secret position to the Canadians, whatever was actually said.

One other footnote here: CTV is citing high-level Canadian government sources, and it's probably worth keeping in mind that the conservative Canadian
premier
prime minister is getting his own share of mileage out of this confrontation.